Budoven
by Goblin Cat KC
Summary: Vegeta's past comes back to haunt him every day-memories of a lost culture, vulnerabilities he can't shake, a royal bearing crushed under cruelty. Now his past comes back in the form of old enemies that destroy worlds. SLASH Goku x Vegeta COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Budoven**

by KC

**Disclaimer**: I don't know who owns Dragon Ball Z. Probably someone with a lot of money now. I would hope they overlook this poor dishonorable student and pay more attention to counting those piles of green.

**Other Info**: Goku never left with the dragon, Vegeta never cut his hair, and everyone's alive. In other words, GT is silly and wasn't made by the artist and I don't consider it cannon. **Also, the love scene has been edited to lie within 's guidelines.** The original scene can be found on my journal.

_**Further Info**__: _This was written for a DBZ Big Bang Project that unfortunately came to nothing. Since I couldn't find any more information on the project after the community disappeared, I've decided to post it here in parts. _  
_

**Prologue - 23 years ago**

Denduluri was a glorified mudball, more ocean than island, with little in the way of natural resources. Still, it was on Freiza's list of planets to cull, so Vegeta merely cursed the waves splashing his pod as it floated in the middle of an empty ocean. Was all the life beneath the surface? He hoped not. He'd killed underwater civilizations before, and he hated holding his breath and diving down for miles. Worse, he hated swimming towards light thinking it was a sign of civilization and instead finding a bioluminescent orb on a gigantic set of fangs. "Hey Vegeta!" Nappa called from his own pod several meters away. "Yes, Nappa?" he grumbled.

"Think there are sea monsters out here?"

"The only monsters here are us," Vegeta said.

He grimaced against the vicious green sun beating down and tried to measure the distance between it and the horizon. He thought that it was sinking, but there was no way to be sure. Sunsets could last for years on some planets. He hoped it went down soon and that the night was cool but not icy.

He tapped his scouter, scanning the planet for dry land. To his relief, it also found a large energy source on the planet's largest island, most likely a city, but it lay hundreds of miles across the sea, so he grabbed the open entrance of his pod and started flying, tugging the pod behind him.

"Aw," Nappa said at his shoulder, pulling his own pod. "I hate it when we have to carry our ships."

Vegeta snorted. "I don't want my only ticket off this dump swallowed by a giant fish. Took us forever to find it last time."

"That fish was worth it, though," Nappa said. "Absolutely delicious. I still remember it."

"We'll make time for dinner," Vegeta promised. "But I don't think the fish here will talk, not if the civilization is on land."

"Nuts. I always like it when dinner can talk back," Nappa said, flashing a predatory grin. "Think Raditz is here yet?"

A streak of fire across the sky caught both of their attention. Vegeta followed its path down the horizon and nodded to himself. They had landed split up before, and knew to meet up at the area of strongest energy.

"Looks like he's just in time for the show," he laughed.

By the time they arrived at the beach, the sun had set and his arms felt stiff from dragging his pod behind him. He let it settle in the red sand and sat on top, resting from the long flight. Nappa did the same, flopping down and enjoying the warm breeze. The pink clouds were long and wispy, coalescing and blown apart by the wind, and the night sky was covered in thousands of stars.

Vegeta hated stars when he wasn't in his pod. In space, stars lay flung out over vast distances and spawned within glowing, glittering clouds of dust, passed by comets and flares of cosmic debris. Viewed from a planet, however, they were a flat map that he couldn't touch. He felt like he'd been thrown out of a river when he should have been sailing with it.

"Nappa?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, Vegeta?"

"Can you see our sun from here?"

Nappa fell silent. Vegeta always asked that whenever they looked at the stars. It was a question he always dreaded but one he took great pains to answer honestly. Every time they were assigned a planet, he looked up its distance from Saiya. The search called up bitter pangs of regret and loss, and he did his best not to think about it long.

"No," he answered truthfully. "We're too far out."

Vegeta didn't answer. Nappa often wondered what the loss of their race had done to the young prince. He was still so young, scrabbling against Freiza's hierarchy to keep the older warriors from brutalizing him. Any youthful joy or childish wonder had long since been beaten out of him. A huge part of him had died when torn away from his father, and then to know that he was one of only a scattered handful of Saiyans, a useless prince of a dead world...

The boy hid his emotions well, masking them with a cold numbness. He only smiled in battle. He never cried. He showed anger less and less, hiding it when it might be used against him. He absolutely never showed fear and did his best to hold back any cry of pain. Stoicism was Vegeta's only defense against their employer. Freiza bored of toys that didn't cry.

That lack of emotion worried Nappa. How much of it was a mask and how much of it was encroaching madness? He'd seen Saiyans that had lost their minds. On bad nights, usually when they'd gone too long on Freiza's ship without a mission, he could see the touch of madness burning at the edge of Vegeta's eyes. The prince could fall silent for days, staring at nothing on the wall. Drinking, whoring, gambling, the usual entertainment on Freiza's ship-he never partook. He sat still and moved too deliberately, too self-aware.

Did Vegeta simply miss his family? So did Nappa and Raditz, and neither of them were in danger of going insane. His culture? He'd been too young to know it all that well. His place in the universe? Nappa sometimes thought that maybe Vegeta missed the chance to actually be a prince as opposed to having the royal title tacked on like a cosmic insult.

Or maybe as Vegeta grew older, he felt the weight of responsibility to a world that he'd failed. If Vegeta ever felt guilt, though, he never let it slip to Nappa or anyone else. To the rest of the ship, he was the strongest of the young warriors, the most aloof of the prisoners, and the most ruthless in battle.

A streak of light warned them that Raditz was coming. Standing, they both waited for him to bring his own pod to the beach and catch his breath. Without a word, they all lifted into the air and flew to the distant red glow on the horizon. They landed in the center of a ring of mud huts with dozens of aliens slithering along on eel-like bodies. Dressed in shells and kelp, the natives stared at the three newcomers in open wonder.

"Hey, Nappa," Vegeta laughed.

"Yeah?"

"Looks like we're getting seafood after all."

To their annoyance, the slaughter didn't take long at all. There were no champions, or if there were, none that stood out long enough before being cut down with the rest of them. On other planets they got to hear brave speeches about how the hero would save the day, sometimes the way the local gods would aid the people in their battle, or even witness a civil war spurred on by their decimation only to have the winners realize they had been horribly deluded and that the Saiyans didn't care who they killed. These eel people died too fast to do anything, and soon the planet was quiet.

Watching their victims strut or cringe was one of their few pleasures to break up the monotony of Freiza's ship. Different planets reacted in strange ways, and once in awhile they surprised the Saiyans. This easy death was different but unsatisfying.

Radditz held his slab of meat over the fire, roasting it the way he preferred. As he turned it over, he quietly laughed to himself.

"What're you thinking of?" Nappa asked.

"Just remembering a few planets ago," Radditz said. "The ones that worshiped us."

Nappa chuckled with him. "The fanatics."

The memory was hard to erase-no other planet had reacted that way. On a world of treacherous cliffs and steep valleys, the throng of birdlike creatures had watched them methodically destroy whole cities, slowly moving towards their aeries. To the Saiyans' surprise, the whole race had gone to meet them in ceremonial feathery robes. As they approached, they heard the last words of the priest telling his flock that the day of fiery consumption had at last come and that they should meet their end calmly with dignity.

Silent, Vegeta had watched them kneel down, heads bowed, waiting for his blast as if he was a god. He had hesitated. For once he had no idea what to do.

When Nappa had raised his hand, however, he stepped forward and swept his strongest ki bolt over them, leaving nothing but ashes in a second. It was the only time a race had knelt before him, and Nappa and Radditz never mentioned it. There had been no amused laughter, no toying with their prey, and Vegeta had ensured they couldn't even dine on their bodies. It was a strange respect the prince had given them, and not one they felt comfortable asking him about.

"What's that?" Vegeta asked, startling them both.

As one, they all stared at the gray spaceships coming down from the clouds. Their blocky shapes were silhouetted by the lights along their fins, and as they landed, squashing the huts, the smoke from their engines swamped the land like fog. The Saiyans stood, hoping for a real fight.

The ships lowered long landing ramps, and out walked several buglike creatures with long antennae. The one in the center had a cape affixed between his shoulder spines, marking him as the obvious leader. His joints were segmented and his jaw clacked when he spoke.

"I am Lord Reagel," he said, his antennae waving towards all of them. "I am commander of the Budoven fleet. Who are you?"

Instantly Vegeta's mood improved. Budoven. Freiza complained about them often. Galactic parasites, they ruined any planet they touched. Freiza would be pleased to know that they'd destroyed a whole fleet of them and saved the planet for a client.

"I am Prince Vegeta," he said, laughing. "And we are your death."

The commander's head was on the ground before the rest of them knew what had happened. A second later, the Budoven's guns were drawn and the battle was met.

**Present Day**

Bones snapped and crunched audibly as they ate. Goku never ate like this at home with Chichi, cracking the bones and sucking out the marrow. She called it rude and disgusting, and he always watched the bones go into the trash with some regret. After hunting one of the many dinosaurs roaming the forest, however, there was plenty of marrow in its bones to make up for the loss. Rich, meaty, and smooth, nothing was better, especially when the bones were thick.

Vegeta didn't agree, and he let him take the bones without argument, favoring the internal organs instead. He was still finishing the creature's heart, steaming in the cool night air, and licking the blood from his fingers. It was the blood that Vegeta savored, often describing it in terms reminiscent of a milkshake, and he ripped off a hunk of flesh to lap at it before devouring it in a few bites.

Sighing in satisfaction, Goku tossed empty shards of bone over his shoulder onto a growing pile. More and more of their nights were spent like this, fighting each other in the morning, hunting in the afternoon, eating and enjoying each other's company in the evening. They had never agreed to meet each other and never discussed what days they would come together. One would simply join the other as he trained.

No one ever came looking for them on these nights, either. It was too dangerous to come within miles while they sparred, and no one wanted to join their hunt for dinner, not after Piccolo had come to check on them once. Goku chuckled.

"What's funny?" Vegeta asked from the other side of the campfire. He sat just far enough for the flames to cast a flickering glow over his face, leaving the rest of him in shadow.

Goku tossed another chunk of wood on the fire to give them more light.

"Just remembering Piccolo that one night," he said. "I didn't mean to gross him out, but the face he made was funny."

"Mm." Vegeta nodded once and fell silent again.

Why talk? Humans treated dinner like it was some kind of social get together, and Goku had picked up that annoying habit. Only after long years and super Saiyan patience had Vegeta's silent treatment finally sank into Goku's head that the prince didn't feel the need to speak. Goku tolerated the silence for Vegeta's sake, but he preferred the irritated grumbling that he usually drew out of him.

"I still wish the boys would join us," Goku sighed. "They don't know what they're missing."

Vegeta rolled his eyes, a habit of his own picked up from Trunks. "They're too human. They prefer fancier meals, with spices and sauces and things like that."

"And cooked," Goku said, grabbing a piece he had staked over the fire. He never had to compete with Vegeta for roasted meat. The prince preferred it raw and dripping. "Is this how Saiyan elites would eat?"

A knife twisted in Vegeta's heart. He didn't like to think about life when he wasn't the last of his race. He eyed Goku. One of the last two, he thought, although he couldn't fully convince himself that Goku, his Kakarrot, was really a full Saiyan. There were so many things about his culture that he'd forgotten and would never experience, especially not with this amnesiac low bred warrior who had taken too well to human culture.

"If we were off world or hunting," he said with a nod.

"Did Saiyans ever use tables?" Goku asked.

Vegeta shrugged. "Rarely, on formal occasions. I never saw it. I was too young to dine with the nobles."

Goku looked at him through the fire. Vegeta thought he masked the pain well, but Goku always caught the tell-tale cracks in the mask. The tightness of his jaw, the rigid posture, the hooded eyes as he stared into nothing. Vegeta clamped down on his emotions like a vice, calling it soft heartedness that had to be done away with. That violent repression of his feelings told Goku just how strong those feelings were. But he never called him on it. The prince put himself through enough pain without adding to it.

Finally the meal was finished. Goku picked over the last bones as Vegeta stripped the last bits of flesh from the otherwise clean skeleton. The campfire snuffed out in its own ashes, leaving a thin trail of smoke that rose up, then drifted to the ground. Rain, Goku recognized. He'd learned how to read the natural signs around him to tell the weather, and the smoke told him they didn't have long before the clouds rolled in. How long had they been eating? Dew was starting to form on the grass.

"Wanna head in?" he asked. He didn't think Vegeta would agree. Only rarely did the other Saiyan mind being caught in a downpour.

As expected, Vegeta shook his head and got to his feet, walking away towards the trees. Goku kicked dirt over the campfire to bury it, covering it completely, then followed. He often wondered why Vegeta insisted on coming deeper into the forest, and he imagined it was for the same reason Chichi insisted on turning off the lights before sex. Vegeta used the thick canopy of branches and leaves to block out the stars and moon.

Not that the darkness mattered. Both of them shared the excellent night vision of their race. Vegeta picked a spot beneath a lush tree and sat down, pulling off his top and tugging off his boots. Goku joined him, shedding his own clothes quickly. He never hurried Vegeta into disrobing faster. He enjoyed watching the other Saiyan peel off the tight stretchy fabric and deliberately lay it aside. Vegeta was deliberate in everything he did, and the way he prepared for their nightly trysts had all the elements of a ritual or ceremony.

First the top, then the boots, then the pants. Then Vegeta always paused, sitting slightly curled on the ground. Even in the dark, he never looked Goku square in the eyes when they lay together. Sometimes Vegeta even closed his eyes, pressing his hand against his mouth to keep himself quiet. Goku had never asked why. He didn't know about Vegeta's past with Freiza, but there were some things he didn't dare ask. The way Vegeta closed himself off whenever the conversation turned to his old boss warned Goku off, and he told himself to stay satisfied with the knowledge that Freiza had hurt him so bad that he never wanted to speak of it.

Especially not when there were far more pleasant activities to enjoy.

He crawled to Vegeta's side, taking in the scent of his hair, nuzzling cheek to cheek. Goku didn't act this way for anyone else. Tentative like two animals meeting for the first time, Goku used his body language to ask permission, creeping over him and guiding them both down flat. The forest floor provided a rough mat with twigs and stones and dry leaves crunching beneath them, but he felt more at home here on the bare terrain than in his bed at home.

"Kakarrot..."

"Vegeta?"

"I'm tired."

That was all that had to be said. Vegeta only admitted such where no one could see him. The hunt and the sparring hadn't worn him out, but the quiet years on earth let him relax, come down from years of heightened awareness. He had lived constantly wary for sneak attacks, and now that he no longer lived with that chronic paranoia, he felt all the stress and tension finally working out of him. It made for sore muscles and aching bones as he grew used to feeling safe. It also made him anxious, confusedly wondering why he was angry before he realized it was because his instincts sought out danger where there wasn't any.

So tonight Kakarrot would go slow. No mindless rut but first careful exploration of his prince's body. Bruises he didn't care about. He couldn't feel those. But Saiyans healed quickly and his fingertips searched for the new shallow cuts left by ki bolts, mapping them before they vanished back into his skin. It was easy to tell the new ones from the old. The new scars were spider thin, small and barely raised. The old ones...

He brushed the thick, raised scars on Vegeta's shoulders, ignoring the sharp intake of breath and the angry warning growl. Vegeta might bite, but never deep enough to really hurt him. Goku thought that Vegeta appreciated his acknowledgment of the old wounds. In the bare starlight that left the night a dark, dark blue, the scars looked like silver wisps along Vegeta's skin in the tight close formations so reminiscent of Freiza's claws.

Bending over him, kissing, then licking as if he could lap the scars away-Vegeta breathed in and tensed, arching his back slightly. Goku smiled. Their bodies were hardened by callouses and injuries, but somehow Vegeta managed to stay sensitive to the touch. He wished they had their tails. He sometimes toyed with the idea of wishing them from the dragon, but how to explain to everyone else that he was willing to risk the destruction of the earth just to see Vegeta writhe and lose his self-control?

When the others asked why he spent so much time in Vegeta's company, he didn't tell them. Vulnerability masked behind brittle pride, raw love and anger that had scarred over. He would never tell them. It was his secret, a royal secret, and he would cherish Vegeta in private.

Vegeta's ego was horribly fragile. He knew if he teased him, his prince was blush furiously and never open up again. And he couldn't risk that, especially not now as he waited-

There it was. Goku felt it at the edge of his senses, an electrical tingling that touched his mind, withdrew as if afraid, then tentatively touched again. He closed his eyes to better feel Vegeta's emotions flickering at the cusp of his awareness. Power lurked there, like a hawk trying to land on a treacherous cliff face, brushing the rough stone with its feather tips. Goku held still, waiting patiently as Vegeta let himself trust enough to settle safely down, firmly curled against Goku's strength.

The first time he had felt it, he hadn't known what it was. Only because he'd known in his heart, instinctively like an animal, that this was Vegeta had he not whirled to attack it. Later on the other Saiyan had explained that it was part of mating another Saiyan, a feral affection that demanded a dangerous trust, like two eagles clasping talons in the air and plunging in ecstasy, trusting the other to let go before they slammed into the earth. Vegeta had tried and failed to hide his blush as he explained, furious with himself for showing weakness. Goku had grinned and hugged him and made a fool of himself to assuage his ego, and from then on he fought not to betray that trust.

The tingling sensation faded slowly, loathe to leave. Vegeta could deny it all he liked, but Goku knew better. The prince was coming to enjoy the vulnerability with him, baring his throat to Goku's fangs and coming away unscathed time and again.

A royal gift, the only one he had to give, and one that Goku handled delicately, terrified what his clumsy, powerful hands might do to it.

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

The field before him was not drenched in blood. Vegeta repeated to himself that the field before him was not drenched in blood.

The field before him was green with blowing grass and a flowing creek through the middle of it, the last remnant of the mighty river that had cut the valley between the mountains. On the cliff, Vegeta sat beneath the tall tree at the very edge of the rock face. The precipice was treacherous, ready to crumble off the rock and tumble to the valley. It also provided the best view, wide and expansive so that he saw miles and miles to the ocean in the far distance and the horizon spreading out of sight.

It reminded him of space. Cramped in his tiny pod, he'd watched the universe fly past, stars, galaxies, nebula all swirling around him. Adrift in the eddies of solar flares and comet tails, he could have blinked out of existence at any moment among the violent currents of space. His life had been empty but vast.

Here on earth, life felt just as cramped as his pod, but the grandeur and triumph was gone. There were no galaxies, only clouds, no meteor showers, only rain. When he'd slaughtered for Freiza, he had spent enough time on world to savor the novelty of rough winds, storms, and blazing heat, then returned to the pod with blood on his hands and fell into the silence of space travel.

No Saiyan had endured what he had, had grown up as he had. Children were rocketed out to distant planets while asleep, enjoyed a frenzied awakening of death, and then were picked up as little more than animal adults. The elite enjoyed education and growing to know their families, politics that would shape their culture. But Vegeta had lived as an elite with his family and understood the pain of losing them when others had not. He had lived with knowing his race had been destroyed and buried his emotions, his shame, under his captor's watchful sight. He had suffered the pain of death time after time.

All of that might not have affected him as it had if he had not endured long spans of time alone in absolute silence. Sound did not travel in space. In the pod, he had been frozen in waking stasis, locked in an impenetrable deprivation chamber. It did things to the mind. The rush of sensation upon the crashing and opening of a pod had driven lesser soldiers insane, and he endured it time and again thinking it normal.

He'd never told anyone that he knew full well the difference between sanity and madness. He occasionally felt madness creeping up on him and retreated to quiet fields and valleys where his only companion was the wind and rain. Alone, he would watch the sky change from clouds to stars, watch the sun fly by and ignore any curious warrior sent to check on him. The wind and rain became a drone that turned to silence as he drove back the insanity burning inside of him.

And so the field before him was not drenched in blood. Swords, ki bolts and other tools of his trade did not slice apart the soldiers on the red grass scattered amongst black scorch marks. There were no dead bodies, no laughter in the center of the killing field as he relished his victory with companions as maddened as he was.

Those days of heady excitement, drunk with death, eating his kill and nursing stinging wounds made by a few lucky warriors...they were gone, replaced by blunted numbness. This world offered no challenge, nothing but death and disappointment. He forced himself to bring to mind his son, so satisfyingly brilliant if naive. He could have been a great warrior...

So much could have been different. The silence began to grate on him, no longer a soothing drone but an annoying needle. He sighed and stood up. That was always the sign that it was time to go home. His mind craved some outside entertainment.

A familiar ki signature flashed towards him. He didn't bother looking. Trunks and Goten were practically joined at the hip now so that he was used to their signatures blending together, and as usual their ki was excited as they embarked on yet another adventure. Trunks had grown into the mirror of his future self, and Goten looked more like his father every day, but they had lost none of their childish exuberance. He waited for them to land and tilted his head in curiosity at the paper Trunks held.

"Papa, look!"

Vegeta took the slip of computer printout, careful not to crush it. Things on this world broke and tore so easily. The image was blurry, more shadows and grey highlights than a discernible shape. He tipped it one way, then another.

"I think it's a ship," Trunks said. "Mother doesn't agree, but look here. Doesn't that look like a fin? That would make these ovals here engines."

"Cool," Goten grinned, doing a spin in the air. "Real aliens."

Vegeta didn't remind him that he was standing in front of a real alien. He'd been dealing with Goten for years and had learned that the boy simply saw things differently than everyone else. Vegeta had raised him more than Goku, so of course Vegeta wasn't just human but family. For his part, Vegeta tolerated him like his son's favored and useful pet.

"Do you think it's a ship?" Trunks asked. "I was hoping you might recognize it."

"Hm." If anyone else had come to him with this, he wouldn't have spared more than a glance. But he brought it closer and held a glow of ki in his hand, backlighting the picture. Imagined it as a blur outside a rocketing space pod amidst swirls of glowing dust...

He smiled slowly and nodded more to himself than his son.

"All right!" Trunks yelled, leaping up in joy. "I knew it!"

Neither of them saw how the feral twist of Vegeta's smile. Oh yes, here was entertainment. He looked over the field one more time. The field was not drenched in blood. Not yet.

*

"How?"

Goku stopped chopping wood for the pile, letting the ki fade from his hand, and looked up where Piccolo floated a few feet away. Chichi was out shopping with Videl and the house was empty, too quiet for Goku's liking. The birds singing nearby at least made him feel surrounded by living things.

"'How'?" he echoed, pretty sure he knew what Piccolo meant. There was no way the Namek didn't know about his affair. "Not why?"

"Not why," Piccolo shook his head. "I can understand that. You're the last two of your kind, you're the only one who can vaguely understand what goes through his head. And you can both cut loose with each other the way you can't with your wives. I understand why."

The same reasons Gohan visits you, Goku thought. For beings as powerful as they were, they sensed the flashes of ki no matter how they all tried to hide it. It was a little disconcerting to know when his sons were having sex, but at least Gohan tried to mask it and they all exercised a measure of discretion.

"But how?" Piccolo asked again. "You know what he's done. You know what he still is."

"Wait," Goku said. "That's not-"

"I admit he hides it well now," Piccolo said over him. "Everyone thinks it's just arrogance and him being a royal pain in the ass. But we've both seen him at his worst. We both know what he really feels."

Goku didn't answer.

"How can you stand him?" Piccolo asked. "All the anger and rage, it's all pent up inside of him. He's the same twisted bastard he's always been. He doesn't even respect you half the time."

"Most of the time, everyone treats me like I'm not that bright," Goku said. "It's not that bad."

Piccolo didn't reply. His frown only deepened as he waited for Goku to answer.

"How can I stand him?" Goku said to himself, considering it. Then he looked up with a smile. "You should ask Gohan."

Twisted bastard notwithstanding, Piccolo understood Goku's meaning. This wasn't the only Son who loved someone less than pure. He paused, turning Goku's reply over in his head.

"Gohan made me change," Piccolo said slowly, choosing his words. "But Goku...I didn't go through what he did. I was just an angry, mean dog. Vegeta was taken away from everything and abused for his whole life. That does things to you, things you can't change."

Goku nodded once. "I know. We both know it's there. But that's the reason I can stand it."

"Pity?" Piccolo snarled.

"Not pity," Goku said. "It's not...he trusts me. He trusts me. It's..."

The far away look in his eyes and the vague, wondering smile made it clear. Piccolo snorted once and turned around, his answer clear. Goku could stand Vegeta out of love. He now wondered what it was that kept Vegeta close to Goku. He didn't like any of the reasons he came up with-disdain, convenience, cruelty-and love? He'd believe that when he saw it.

Left behind, Goku watched him fly off in a huff. Piccolo would probably be in a funk for the whole day and take it out on his sparring partner.

"Poor Gohan," he chuckled.

Leaving the unchopped wood aside, he went inside the house and plucked a liter of soda from the refrigerator, popping the top and taking a long drink that emptied a third of the bottle. The house was still too quiet, and he looked around himself at everything inside.

He couldn't consider it his home, not really. Fragile furniture that broke if he sat down too hard, a table that would crumble at a touch. He was surprised the walls were still standing. Usually there were holes that had to be plastered because a careless sweep of the hand punched through the thin steel wall. It was why he spent so much of his day outside. The less time he was inside, the less likely he was to destroy something.

Then again... He went outside and sat down on the stump he used to split wood. Gohan spent his time either at his job or out with Piccolo. Goten never left Trunks' side, even to come home. It was easier now that he'd started high school to simply keep him over with the Briefs who let him study with the same tutors, but even so, the boys spent their time outside matching each other's skills.

Saiyans just weren't built for indoor living. He wondered how Vegeta handled sitting in a space pod for so long.

Soda finished, he incinerated the bottle and sat down to watch the sun slowly sinking to the horizon. He felt Vegeta's presence far across the valley, but neither of them acknowledged the other.

Why did he love Vegeta? Goku couldn't answer. If he had to give some kind of reason, it was probably the conflict in Vegeta's heart, the soft heartedness warring against the fear and rage beaten into him by Freiza. Vegeta would never fully exorcise his demons, but the struggle alone was enough.

Unspoken was also the fact that Vegeta had helped bring up Goten during the long years that Goku had been dead. Everyone had worried that Trunks would mirror his father's arrogance, but the boy's pride wasn't marred by self-doubt or abuse. Goten had never been in any danger in that family and still trusted everyone around him. To Goku, that was a sign that his faith wasn't misplaced.

To his surprise, Goku felt the boys flying towards the valley. He wondered what had them so excited that he could feel their exuberance from here, but they flew off with the prince a moment later.

Not long after that, the phone rang inside the kitchen. His head lifted as he listened to the answering machine click on, and then Bulma's excited voice came through.

*

Inside her lab, Bulma sat at her computer watching an image on the screen shift and twist. Behind her, Trunks and Goten looked over her shoulder and Vegeta paced back and forth as much as he could between the walls and tables. He kept his head lowered and stared at the ground, doing his best to ignore the glaring florescent lights and the flickering screens around the room. The machines whirred and hummed, and in the windowless room he felt a distinct similarity between this lab and the chambers of a space ship. At least the scorch marks on the ceiling gave him something to look at, the result of Bulma or Trunks' more experimental inventions exploding.

"Well?" Vegeta demanded.

Her slow technology was enough to give him a headache. On Frieza's ship, they would have had results instantly, with armaments and soldiers standing by, ready for the command to attack. Frieza would have...he growled and kept pacing. Frieza would have tortured him to satisfy his boredom.

"I still can't get a clear picture of it," she said, working out refractive angles by hand with a pen. Long rows of numbers  
filled the page, but each one she tried only shifted the blur around.

"I told you, it's probably shielded from your pathetic monitors."

She snarled and whirled in her chair, knocking Goten into Trunks, who was used to her mood swings and reacted in time to catch him. "If you already know what this is, why not share it with the people you're complaining at?"

"I want to be certain first."

"It looks like a ship," Trunks said, tracing the outline on the screen with his finger. "See? Here's the stern, the aft..."

"It's even got fins," Goten said. "It looks cool."

As brilliant as your father, Vegeta thought sarcastically, but with Bulma nearby he didn't say it. "Forget trying to tell what it is. Is there any way to tell if that's the only one?"

"Well," Bulma swiveled her chair to face the screen again. "We've got motion detectors to look for potential planet killing asteroids, but there's usually so little data it won't report for days or weeks."

"Try it."

"Okay, if you say so." She opened a new menu. "Osmond's due for a download anyway."

"Osmond?" Goten asked.

"Outer System Motion Detection Device," Bulma said. "Here we go. It's starting to download."

A strong ki signature made Vegeta stop pacing and glance at the lab door. Had they called the others? Certainly not for such a little thing as a picture that might be rocks and dust. He crossed his arms and turned away from the door. He might not have come if he'd known the moron was on his way, not with the rest of them here. Even the way he knocked was annoying, a chipper tap tap to overcompensate so he didn't break the door down.

"Bulma," Goku called. "It's us. Can we come in?"

"Yeah, just be careful. It's tight in here and-" Bulma dropped her pen and gaped at the screen. "Oh my God."

While Goku and Gohan entered, edging around the gray machinery taller than themselves, Trunks leaned close to the monitor, hovering over his mother. Vegeta leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Let me guess," he said. "A hundred objects detected?"

"Just about." Trunks turned and looked at his father. "Papa? How did you know?"

"Because while these computers are inferior, I know exactly what that shape is. Their numbers just confirm it." He took a deep breath and raised his head, staring at a scorch mark on the ceiling. "It's a Budoven ship, probably a scouter."

"Budoven?" Gohan asked.

Goku tilted his head. "Is that bad?"

"Oh yes," Vegeta said. "They've must've noticed Earth by now. Those ships are the bulk of their fleet."

"But what do they want?" Gohan asked.

Bulma frowned. "I guess it's too much to hope that they'll be friendly."

"'Friendly'?" Vegeta glanced at the blurry shape again. "They are worse than Frieza ever was."

Goku straightened. "They're stronger?"

"I said worse, not stronger. Frieza's crew merely purged all intelligent life from certain planets for rich clients. The Budoven destroy every planet they discover, harvesting anything organic for food and taking all minerals and resources for fuel and raw materials for their ships. Once the planet's dead, they move on to the next world."

"How do you know about them?" Trunks asked.

Vegeta hesitated. His son still didn't know what he was capable of, and he never liked to discuss his planet killing days in front of the boy. Trunks looked up to him. After all these years and the horrible disillusionment of Trunks from the future, that sense of filial worship was alien and utterly fragile to him. He only managed to understand it from his view of his own father. Even after the king's failure to save the planet or stop Freiza, Vegeta couldn't help but lionize his memory. Like fathers, like sons.

"I've fought them before," he explained. "Once in awhile, they'd beat us to a planet. There are several colonies of Budoven roaming the universe. No matter how many you destroy, there's always another cluster in another galaxy."

Gohan met Bulma's eyes. "How soon'll they be here?"

"Well..." She faced the computer and opened another screen. "I spotted this a couple of hours ago...and going at that speed..."

"Five hours," Vegeta said. "Give or take."

Bulma nodded.

"Five...?" Gohan looked at his father. "That's hardly any time to get ready."

"Yeah," Goku said. "We'd better round everyone up and-"

"No," Vegeta said. "You won't be fighting."

The three demi-Saiyans started protesting, but the prince paid no attention to them. As he made a move to leave, Goku stepped forward and put his hand on the other Saiyan's shoulder.

"Vegeta, even if you're in the thick of things, we'll still need everyone to keep this fight contained. If the Budoven are really that strong-"

"I told you, they aren't strong." Vegeta shrugged off Goku's hand. "They're only dangerous because there are so damn many of them. They're like this planet's locusts. They have no world, only a fleet. They devour anything in their path and then move on. When I last faced them, they usually kept a thousand of their own on each ship."

"A mobile species," Bulma said to herself. She picked up her notepad and took down everything Vegeta had said in shorthand.

"That means we could be up against millions of them," Gohan said. "If we're gonna drive them off, we'll need everyone."

"There's no driving them off," Vegeta said. "Once they land, you either kill them or they kill you."

A moment passed. They were all used to how casually Vegeta treated life and his relish for fighting, but his manner was completely different now. Goku's optimism made it easy to forget sometimes how brutal a fight could be. Vegeta's cold and businesslike tone made the sense of death seem that much more real.

"All of them?" Goten asked. "There are thousands of ships. That's gotta be thousands of people."

The Saiyan prince nodded. "That's why I'm going to do this alone."

"But..." Goku tried to imagine what a million bodies on top of each other looked like and shook his head, clearing the image away. "Wait. You had Raditz and Nappa to help you before."

Vegeta stared into Goku's eyes. "As if you could do this. Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't break down while you're killing a million people?"

"But Vegeta, you can't-" Goku said.

"Idiot. I could since I was three years old."

"That isn't what I meant and you know it," Goku said, frowning. He felt a brush against the back of his mind, his mate's growing irritation and a warning snarl whispering through his brain. He responded in kind only to feel Vegeta close off again, and Goku's frown deepened.

To everyone else, it seemed like a staring contest. When the silence stretched on, Gohan gave his disgust free rein.

"Is that why you want to fight alone?" Gohan asked, glaring at Vegeta. "You miss killing?"

Vegeta shook his head. "No one else here is capable of doing this, except maybe the androids."

"Vegeta, no," Goku said, growling in annoyance. "You'll need help. It's too much on one person."

Scoffing openly, Vegeta half-smiled. "If you want to try to contain the fight so it doesn't spill over into a city, feel free to try. I only wanted to warn you to stay away from the main fight." His smirk grew into a grin. "Don't worry, if you want there'll still be plenty of Budoven for you to kill."

Leaving them with that thought, Vegeta walked out of the lab and down the hall. A few seconds later, Goku materialized in front of him so that he walked right into his chest and stumbled back a step, hissing.

"Dammit, Kakarrot, quit doing that!"

"Isn't there a way to do this without killing an entire species?" Goku asked. "I mean, one or two bad guys is bad enough, but a million people..."

"Don't think of them as a million people," Vegeta said, trying to walk around him and growling when Goku stepped back in his way again. "Think of them as a million 'bad guys'. That's all they are."

"But it doesn't feel right."

The Saiyan prince growled under his breath. "I've told you before, fool, don't listen to your feelings. They'll get you killed."

"And I told you I always listen to them. This isn't some game where you can just turn off your feelings." He put both hands on Vegeta's shoulders now, softening his voice to a whisper. "And despite how you act, I know you don't want to do this either, not really."

Vegeta closed his eyes. Damn the side effects of mating. The faint blurring of their emotions was always light, but still substantial enough to give Goku a taste of his feelings. Usually it was fine, even a comfort that he wouldn't admit to, but that kind of vulnerability had a price.

"That's why I have to," he said. "It is a game, nothing personal, no feelings, just business. You can't understand that. Doing this would probably break you."

He lay one hand on Goku's, not moving or pushing away. Goku was so close, he could feel the warmth of his body only inches away. His voice faded to a whisper and he wouldn't meet Goku's gaze. When forced to honestly explain his weaknesses, he found he could never look into Goku's eyes. His pride wouldn't allow it.

"I've seen broken soldiers who can't fight anymore," he said. "I won't let that happen to you."

"Won't you at least have someone help you?" Goku whispered. "If not me, then someone?"

Help? The prince of all Saiyans needed no help. He growled his displeasure.

"Do what you will," he said, smacking Goku's hands off before walking down the hall. "Just stay out of my way."

Without another word, Goku watched him until he disappeared around a corner. He lowered his head and tried to imagine what a slaughter like Vegeta planned would look like. Certainly to the prince this would just be another purging, even easier perhaps, but to Goku, thinking about Vegeta killing without remorse wounded him like a vicious ki blast. That wasn't Vegeta, not anymore. At least he wanted to believe that.

To Be Continued...


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

His earlier good mood spoiled, Vegeta left the compound and gathered a burst of ki in one hand. He reached back and sent it flying toward the horizon, then slammed his own ki signature down to almost nothing. He never got used to feeling "himself" disappear into the sky, but it was a good trick for making everyone think he was somewhere else. The ki bolt streaked across the darkening clouds like a shooting star far from the city to the wilderness.

Safe from prying eyes for a time, he found his way into the main house, waving idly to Mrs. Briefs as she tended her garden. Upstairs then, past Bulma's room, past Trunks' room, into his own sparse quarters. They all wondered why he didn't dress it up the way everyone else did. Trunks had his blueprints and video game characters. Bulma kept souvenirs of her travels. Vegeta's room was as clean as a hotel's, save for a handful of photos kept on the table by the bed and an electronic reader. His time in Freiza's service had left little leisure, and even if he'd had reading material, he wouldn't have indulged. Not on that ship, where being perceived as soft was an invitation to a beating from creatures that already held him in contempt.

Here, however, he had taken one of the readers Trunks used with his tutors and found himself spending more and more time with it. First were his son's lesson books, basic engineering and mathematics, some music, but what grasped him was literature. Humans had a love of stories. They spun them for profit, for sheer enjoyment. He had no idea there were so many kinds.

The stories his son read slowly moved beyond his interest as Trunks progressed into the university, but the cheap popular works-"pulp trash" Mr. Briefs was fond of calling it-held his interest for hours. He didn't understand why anyone read long stories of nothing but feelings, emotions and philosophy, not when there were novels of lurid sex, violence and cruelty. Murder and gang warfare-that was real life.

Well, that and the one story about falling into a world that was upside down and nightmarish, with a monarch that threatened to take everybody's head and monsters getting snickersnacked. He had come to a nonsense world where low class soldiers outshone their prince and the dead came back to life. The little girl's bewilderment and perseverance had felt very true to him.

After all, what could be more nonsensical than falling in love with the low class trash that had humiliated him time and again?

Kakarrot was nothing if not infuriatingly naive, gullible and foolish. Vegeta often told himself that of course Kakarrot would be more powerful when all his brain wasn't occupied by thinking. It was a cold comfort. Had he fallen in love because he could only feel attraction to the strong? Was it because Kakarrot was the last of their kind?

He had told Kakarrot to give up his soft heartedness. He wished he could take his own advice. Pride, anger and joy had always been his masters. He was helpless to them. This strange thing between him and Kakarrot was just another bit of this world's insanity.

Kakarrot had said once that Vegeta couldn't help the way he was. Freiza had molded him into something terrible and Vegeta had never had a chance to be anything else. Decades had passed since then, and Vegeta still felt the inner conflict in his soul. He had learned to calm his fury and restrain his bloodlust. But only to restrain it, to quell violent emotions and hide the monster lurking within all too close to the surface.

One day, he feared that monster would lash out again. Perhaps that was why he allowed Kakarrot so close. The other Saiyan was the only one on earth that could truly stand against him if he lost control. Who better with which to allow himself that kind of vulnerability than the person who knew him so well and didn't turn his back on him in disgust?

He wondered if Kakarrot would still feel that way after the coming slaughter.

Growling to himself, he set the reader aside before he crushed it in his fist and wished he could rip the ugly emotions out of himself. If Kakarrot saw him covered in blood yet again, saw him the way he was in the past-would Kakarrot feel pity? Disgust? Would he turn away from him? Vegeta felt sick to his stomach at the thought.

"Hurry up and get here, you miserable bugs," he snarled. "I haven't needed to twist something's head off this bad in a long, long time."

*

Five hours later, every Z fighter stood in the valley outside Satan City, feeling the uneasy stillness of the minutes before battle. Vegeta stared up at the sky, allowing his ki to shine naturally. The Budoven, he knew, would spot their energy in the field from the atmosphere and come towards them, eager to put down any resistance before moving on to the easy kills. It was the way he, Nappa and Radditz used to work.

Gohan, Tien, Chaotzu, Yamcha, 18, even Roshi stood beside Goku while Goten and Trunks kept close to Vegeta, talking about school and movies. Piccolo meditated a few feet off the ground. Even the android 17 had been coaxed out of hermitage, standing beside his sister and unnerving Krillin.

The sun had long set, leaving just the moon reflecting silver light through the clouds. The city lights were a glimmer in the distance. Yamcha and Krillin both held ki up like lanterns for themselves, giving everyone enough of a glow to see by.  
Neither of them saw as well as the others in the dark, but in a fight, that was fine. There would be enough ki sparkling in the night to see by.

"Now remember," Goku said, speaking like a general directing his troops. "You guys just keep a tight parameter."

"Perimeter," Gohan said.

"Right, perimeter. Don't come in towards the main fighting. There's gonna be a lot of them and we have to protect the city."

"Isn't there a way to tell them to leave?" Krillin asked. "I mean, when they see how strong we are..."

"I'm gonna try to convince them to leave," Goku said. "I don't want to kill anyone."

Seventeen gave him a look. "You're going to try to talk to them?"

"Seriously?" Eighteen asked, mirroring her brother.

Goku nodded.

Without turning, Vegeta gave a low laugh. "That should be amusing."

"Watch it, Vegeta," Tien snapped. "We'll need everyone helping when the fighting starts."

"I won't need any help," the prince said. "You're just here to assuage Kakarrot's niggling conscience."

Tien frowned and tilted his head in puzzlement. "Huh?"

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Goku said without explaining, turning from Tien to Vegeta. "You'll let me talk to them first, right?"

Vegeta looked over his shoulder at him, tilting his head in a manner that usually meant 'come closer' instead of 'you're an idiot'.

"Do what you will. Just don't try to hold me back when the fighting starts."

Goku nodded once. "I understand."

"I don't get it," Yamcha said. "How do you know this is where they'll land?"

When the prince ignored him, Goku answered. "Vegeta said it's the best spot. Big clearing, right outside one of the biggest cities." He didn't mention Vegeta had said there were plenty of humans to eat. "And all of us standing here is sure to draw them in."

A beeping noise came from Vegeta's left, and Trunks picked his cell phone out of his jacket.

"Mom? Yeah, we're-where are they?" Oblivious to everyone's look, he looked up to the sky. "On top of us? Mom, I don't see any-hold on."

Shadows slipped over the valley, moving too quickly across the grass to be clouds. Gray ships, like Goten and Trunks had seen in the latest Saiyaman movie, came straight down and set in the valley before them, the grass withering from the heat of their engines. A hatch on the bottom slid out and formed a walkway. More opened on the other ships. Dozens of purple skinned humanoids stepped out on slender legs, their movements stiff around their segmented limbs as they marched out in rows until they colored the green valley purple. Their mandibles, shaped like beetles but much smaller, clacked and clicked until they couldn't hear anything else.

"They look like bugs," Goten whispered to Trunks, who turned off his phone.

"Exoskeletons," Vegeta said without looking away from the Budovens. "Crack that carapace and they'll die in a few moments."

"Oh." The teens nodded once and re-appraised how straightforward the battle would be. Too many to be easy, but hardly needing complex tactics.

"They're all landing," Goku said. "They're not gonna keep any ships in space?"

"They all want the first taste of the planet," Vegeta said confidently. "Make sure you destroy their ships so none of them think to fire from space."

From the main ship, twenty or so Budovens followed one that was a head taller than the rest and wearing a red cape. The throng of soldiers, wearing nothing but their exoskeletons and carrying large guns with blinking lights on the side, stood at attention as they waited for the signal. Foot-long antennae waved a few inches above their eyes.

Afraid that the pause before the battle would be too short, Goku stepped forward from the Z fighters and faced the one wearing a cape. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"That should be obvious," the caped Budoven said.

His features looked more human than the rest of his soldiers, although his carapace was segmented like a puppet's for his face and joints, and he stared at the fighters behind Goku. Nothing too threatening, a few fighters, even a couple of children, and-a surprise. His face was too stiff to smirk, but his antennae perked straight.

"Freiza's Vegeta," he said, mandibles clicking. "So it was your energy we sensed upon approach. I never expected to see you here."

"Obviously," Vegeta said, ignoring everyone's looks. "Or you wouldn't have come."

"Don't be so sure. My army is twice what you defeated in the Neptol system."

"And so was Reagel's army at Denduluri. Your point?"

"Reagel...?" His eyes widened as far as his carapace would let him. "Then, the Ojekella system-"

"News travels so slowly through the galaxies. I found three of your fleets in that system," Vegeta said. "Not one of you miserable vermin survived."

For a moment, no one said anything. The wind stirred the dust around the Budoven and fighters, an insubstantial barrier between the two forces. Still miles away, they could hear vans carrying reporters to the battlefield. All eyes focused on the Budoven leader, his purple mandibles clenching tight in anger.

"I will not be spoken to in such a matter." The Budoven commander flipped his cape back, revealing a set of spikes on his shoulders. "I am Lord Wain, and I expect to be treated in a manner befitting my rank."

You'd be surprised what that gets you here, Goku thought.

"Instead," Lord Wain continued, "you hand me insults and won't even greet me properly. You let this nothing," he jerked his head towards Goku, "step forward and make demands. The death of your kind has warped your mind, if you've even forgotten the courtesies of war."

"Since when do the dead merit courtesy?" Vegeta asked, head tipping up slightly.

"Hm. True enough." Lord Wain nodded once. "So I won't extend you any more."

He snapped his clawlike fingers and two of his honor guard jumped into the air like crickets. They clacked their own claws, ready to slice Goku to shreds.

Faster than their jump, Goku's ki blast cut through one's abdomen, sending it to the ground in two pieces. Goku froze. He'd only meant to knock it backwards. It had come apart so easily...

The second one, leaping before he thought to fire again, landed on the ground in front of him and brought its claws down on Goku's shoulder, driving him back a few steps. Everyone but Lord Wain and Vegeta gasped when they saw Goku sway with the hit.

"Like ants," Trunks breathed. "Super strong proportional to their own size."

"Huh?" Goten asked.

Before Goku could ready another blast, his prince blurred between him and the Budoven fighter, startling both of them back. Lord Wain shouted a warning but too late. Vegeta grabbed the Budoven's nearest arm and pulled it out of its socket, sending a gush of purple blood over his hand. The Budoven fighter staggered backwards, blood dripping from its shoulder, and collapsed to one knee. It only had time to look up as Vegeta raised his hand to its face and immolated its head.

His excited eyes and feral grin left no room for misunderstanding. The prince had enjoyed that.

Before the body hit the ground, Vegeta looked at Lord Wain and began to laugh. "Well? Want to crawl back to your ships and run back to whatever hole you came from?"

"Go to hell," Lord Wain hissed.

"Been there," Vegeta said. "I could give you directions."

"Enough of this posturing," the Budoven said, raising his hand. "My legions, swarm!"

The ground shook as the army streamed out of their ships towards Satan City. Vegeta ascended once and disappeared into their ranks immediately, discernable only by the trail of purple blood flying into the air. The swarm swallowed him, a roaring mass of clicks and explosions that sprayed broken carapaces against the sky.

"Everyone, block them from the city," Gohan yelled.

In teams of two, they scattered in all directions to encircle the Budoven. Tien and Chaotzu took one point, Krillin and Yamcha the next, then Goten and Trunks, Piccolo and Gohan, and finally the androids in their own corner. Goku held his own vast section, struggling to find smaller and smaller ki bursts that wouldn't kill and being thrown by the occasional lucky hit. When the swarm threatened to get past him, eager to reach the city and the people inside-

They'll go for Satan City first, Kakarrot. Plenty of humans to eat.

-Goku told himself that they were bugs, just bugs, and he was protecting a bird's fragile nest from ants. Purple blood turned red in the sun.

*

In the midst of the fight, Vegeta found the past and present blurring together. Where the hell were Nappa and Radditz? Vegeta spun wildly, trying to find his fellow Saiyans, and instead found nothing but insect soldiers swarming around him. The Budoven had found that their guns were useless except at long range and most had dropped them, preferring their powerful limbs and crushing mandibles. The last time he had seen Nappa, his arm hung limp at his side, broken during the battle. He hoped Radditz was faring better. The battle was turning against them.

Something heavy hit him from behind. He sprawled forward, coughing blood, and blasted the handful of insects at his back. It made no difference. More just filled in, arms flailing, jaws aiming for his head. Stars reeled around him. How hard did they hit his head?

Shit, if he didn't do something to change the game soon, they were going to lose, and he did not want to end up on their menu. Hopefully when his Saiyans had been separated from him, they had been pushed far enough away.

This damn mudball had no moon and there was no time to create a false one. He flew up to the sky, higher and higher, winning himself precious seconds to charge and use a gallic gun attack. They were at his heels the entire time, leaping first up at him, then on top of each other, forming a strange ladder for themselves. They had almost reached him when he finally fired into them, burning the airborne tower they had created.

He followed his ki blast down, firing indiscriminately into the mass of insects. At the periphery of his sight, he spotted Nappa and Radditz, a little singed but laughing in relieved triumph as they managed to quell their own areas of the fight now that the center had been destroyed.

And then Vegeta paused in midair. No, not Nappa. Not Raditz. Goten and Trunks. Where was he? When was he?

"Earth," he reminded himself. "Earth..."

Below, waves of Budoven rippled back and forth as ki bolts blasted through them like currents. Hours had gone by, no doubt. Purple blood colored the field and spread out in a giant stain, and he grimaced at how much was on himself. He'd have to bathe in the sea after this, he thought, firing ki like a shotgun. As a thought struck him, he grinned. He'd have to bring Raditz-no, Kakarrot-with him to the ocean, to see him covered in the spray of the waves.

TBC...


	4. Chapter 4

**Conclusion**

The stars seemed frozen. There was no way to tell how long they'd been fighting, minutes or hours. Bodies piled up and crunched underfoot. Goku worked his way towards his prince, but it was slow going. A kamehameha cut a swath across the field, only to fill again with more insect soldiers. On their own they were as insignificant as earth insects, but in these numbers they came at him in tidal waves. He'd already transformed but couldn't see any dent in their numbers yet.

An explosion made him look up for a moment. A flash of gold burst out from the center of the invasion, hurling hundreds of Budoven into the air. They rained down on more below them, accompanied by the brittle cracking of their carapaces. The same bright blur flew into the air and stopped, and Vegeta turned to face the army beneath him. They aimed their weapons and shots flew by him, occasionally burning a mark across his clothes but doing little damage. Gathering his ki in his hands, he fired blast after blast into the deepest concentrations of soldiers.

Purple blood gushed up in a fountain towards the sky, charred arms and legs and shattered fragments flying out over the army. High pitched squeals cut off suddenly as his blasts met their targets, shearing off heads as efficiently as a sword.

While Goku was distracted watching, Budoven leaped on top of him, trying to yank him off his feet. Pinchers clamped onto his clothes and hair while more slammed against his back and knocked him forward. With a grunt, he flew up, dragging several Budoven along until he spun in the air, sending them slamming into their ships and bursting apart on impact.

"Good thing they can't fly," he said to himself, taking the chance to look around.

All around the army, his friends were holding the insects back, some easier than others. The humans kept working along the perimeter, falling back several feet as they continuously fired into the swarm. Krillin and Yamcha were about to be overrun until a kamekameha from Goten vaporized half of their enemy. Close by, Trunks skimmed over the insect heads, lopping them off with his sword while trailing explosive ki in his wake.

Farther away, Piccolo and Gohan managed an entire side by themselves, the Namek on the ground while Gohan flew overhead, sending broad blasts of killing ki across the valley much like Vegeta was doing. The Namekian had little compulsion against killing them cut down swaths of Budoven all around him. Opposite them, the androids tended their own side, killing as efficiently as they were programmed to do. That left one more side for the other humans, and as strong as they were, they were beginning to slump and slow down, kept busy dodging the gun shots. To cover more space, Tien had already split into four. Goku sent a blast that cleared much of their own targets, but more came soon to take their place.

Were they even making a dent in their force? Goku looked down and grimaced. There wasn't a spot of green grass left. Everything was covered in purple blood and broken shells, even the ships had been splattered over. On the outskirts of the battle the blood quickly soaked into the ground, but here, closer to the center, it flowed over the saturated earth and made lakes and rivers. Another explosion, and arms and legs rained down around him.

Goku was convinced this was what hell was like. He was coated in blood and he wanted to stop. Why hadn't the Budoven just left? This wasn't like fighting one mad warlord or conqueror or madman. This killing was systemic and constant like a hammer on his brain.

He flew up, blasted a space to buy himself time to leave his portion of the perimeter, and waved Trunks over. Motion with his hands, he was able to tell him to take his place for a moment, and with that edge secured for a moment, he flew towards Vegeta.

He knew something was wrong when he heard the laughter.

His breath caught at the sound of it. Haughty, triumphant, yes, those were all right. That was how Vegeta sounded normally. But now, after so many years, he heard the old tones of sadistic glee from when Vegeta first landed on the planet. From when Vegeta destroyed half an arena of people.

These Budoven, for all their posturing, weren't the real threat. Vicious, world devouring monsters, yes, but even without the Saiyans, earth's warriors could fight them off well enough. Krillin's ki blasts could carry through a dozen of them. The Budoven simply weren't that powerful.

There was only one vicious monster that Goku had to worry about, one he never wanted to fight again. Following the source of the laughter, he flew over a field of broken bodies and pieces of shells so much like the pieces of bones he'd sucked clean. His stomach twisted. Vegeta made no excuses for eating the sentient creatures he'd killed and would have probably devoured humans if he hadn't been defeated.

When he spotted him, Goku froze.

Alone in the center of the Budoven army, Vegeta moved too fast for human eyes. Only Goku, glowing golden, could follow his movements. Fluid, smooth, clean-Vegeta fought so differently when surrounded. A hand through a Budoven's face, grabbing its spiny carapace and slamming it in a circle breaking other aliens apart until the body shredded apart. Drop to the ground to cushion a glancing blow, sweeping the feet off of the creatures around him, then pushing up into the air to blast handfuls of them away, landing in the spot he'd cleared and dodging a mandible bite. Somehow he knew where each blow was coming and moved with strict efficiency, suffering only minor cuts and bruises.

And then he released a strong burst in a wide circle that swept the creatures back. As the smoke cleared in wisps, he was left catching his breath, eyeing the Budoven that glanced at each other, wondering who would be the first to launch the next assault. It was one thing to lose soldiers in battle. It was another to climb over the corpses of your kind to reach one warrior.

Goku landed beside him. Vegeta's gaze flicked up at him, then back at the ring of Budoven. In the darkness, their carapaces glimmered in the light of the Saiyan's ki.

"How long are we gonna keep this up?" Goku asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Until they're all dead," Vegeta snapped. "They've lost too much to consider turning now. Only a few more hours...maybe..."

Goku heard the fatigue in his voice. So he'd been right. Vegeta had never faced these things by himself. Maybe the fleet was bigger than he'd expected, but there was no way they could keep this up forever. To prove his point, Vegeta flickered back out of the ascended state, using Goku's presence as an opportunity to rest for a moment.

"We can't rest long," Vegeta said. "The humans are only just holding them back. Trunks and the others are doing their best, but they aren't used to this kind of sustained fighting." He growled to himself. "None of you are."

"And you can't do it by yourself," Goku finished his thought for him.

"With Nappa and Raditz, it was hard," Vegeta admitted as frustration filled him. "But we did it twice. If I had either of them now..."

"We're learning what it's like right now," Goku said, forcing optimism into his voice. "We can do this. And if we fuse-"

"Things will never get that desperate," Vegeta growled.

"Just because you don't like the fusion dance..."

"I said never!"

As they argued, they became aware of a low clicking sound. It wasn't loud at first, but as the seconds passed, more and more of the Budoven were clicking their jaws until the Saiyans couldn't hear each other over the dull roar. Goku looked at Vegeta to see if he knew what was happening, and he made out the prince frowning.

"What is it?" he yelled over the roar. "Vegeta, what're they-?"

Lord Wain emerged from the ring of Budoven, much the worse for wear. His cape hung in tatters. One arm was missing from his shoulder, the other from the third segment. His main shell had been cracked and he breathed in choked gasps, clearly in his last few moments, glancing at his soldiers as they fell silent.

"You have no planet of your own," Wain coughed at Vegeta. "Freiza is dead. Why are you fighting us?"

Vegeta shrugged once, wincing and betraying a hidden injury. "This world is mine."

"To sell?" Wain spat blood. "My hive needs it to survive! You're no better than Freiza-"

Wain's head exploded in a ball of ki, splattering the soldiers around him, and his body dropped in a noisy clatter to the ground. Vegeta lowered his hand, smoke still trailing from his fingertips. He was startled by his own reaction, a lightning quick shot drawn by the rage Wain provoked.

"I'm nothing like Freiza," he whispered. "Nothing."

"Vegeta..." Goku breathed.

Seconds passed in silence. All of the Budoven, starting from the center around Wain's body and slowly spreading out through the remaining army, realized that they had lost their leader. Lone insect clicks carried across the field. The Budoven stared at the body, looked at each other, and then at the humans and Saiyans. No hope, they realized. They wouldn't survive this night.

"Well," Vegeta said, taking a deep breath to steady himself, then called out to the remaining Budoven soldiers. "I think I've gotten my second wind. Want to run, or will you all join your dearly departed leader in the dust?"

Silence.

Please go, Goku thought. I can't believe he's even giving them the chance. Oh please, let them-

One Budoven soldier stepped forward, identical to all the rest. It dropped its gun, and for a moment Goku felt a spike of hope that the killing was done.

And then its segmented back broke open, revealing long clear wings. As it jumped, its wings flapped with a distinctive hum over the army's head and carried it into the night sky.

"Oh shit," Vegeta breathed.

Goku's hope burst like a bubble as every soldier dropped their gun and unfurled their wings, growing into a cloudy swarm. He startled as Vegeta unleashed a gallic gun attack in all directions, cutting through swaths of them as they tried to fly, but their army didn't slow. When Vegeta took to the sky, Goku followed at his heels.

"Don't let them get away!" Vegeta cried, ascending again and following them at top speed.

"What are they doing?" Goku yelled back. He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone had heard them. A handful of the fighters were following, but they were so far back. Trunks and Goten were struggling to keep up at the very edge of the Budoven cloud, and behind them Gohan and Piccolo outshot everyone else, flickering dots of light in the distance.

"They're molting!" Vegeta fired bolt after bolt into their midst, only killing handfuls in the spread out cloud. "They'll burrow in the ground to lay eggs and die."

"But that's good, right?" Goku said, watching the Budoven shrug out of their shells like oversized clothes, shedding their arms and legs. Then their heads began to split down the middle, revealing new faces made of compound eyes and round mouths full of sharp teeth. He recoiled in disgust. They looked like fat flying maggots with fangs.

"Not when they eat everything in sight first!" Vegeta swerved hard to avoid a rush of them as they attacked, burning several down but missing even more. "They'll pick the city clean."

After that, Goku couldn't hear him over the humming wings. He tried to keep close, but the battle forced them farther and farther from each other, twisting and turning to avoid Budoven diving in with fangs bared. Behind them, Goku heard Trunks and Goten yell in surprise as they saw what the Budoven had transformed into. The swarm heard the younger pair and some veered back, intent on making the two into a meal. The sudden shift from a chase to a fight drove Goten and Trunks back to back, using short, sharp bolts to block off attacks as the Budoven swooped in.

It happened in seconds. There were too many to keep track of. A handful slipped past their guard, taking quarter sized bites out of Goten. He yelled as one slammed against his side, tearing away a piece of his gi and the flesh underneath, and Trunks whirled and put his arm around him, shooting up like a rocket and disappearing into the clouds with several Budoven at his heels. A moment later those same Budoven came tumbling out of the sky, their wings frozen and shattered in the upper atmosphere.

Goku breathed a sigh of relief when they appeared again, but from the limp way Goten hung in Trunks' arms, they were out of the fight. Trunks had his hands full just keeping the Budoven from taking another bite out of them. Behind them, Gohan and Piccolo caught up and passed by, taking out armfuls of the swarm and leaving Trunks to finish off the rest.

"They're like flying piranha," Gohan said as they caught up to Goku. "How do we get them before they reach the city?"

"We still have time," Piccolo said. "If we could lure them in-"

"How?" Goku said. He let fly a blast of energy that could no longer wipe out a mass of soldiers now that they weren't bound to the earth. Only a few smoldering bugs dropped out of the sky. "The city's like a buffet. Why would they stay to fight us?"

"What's he doing?" Gohan asked in astonishment.

Goku and Piccolo followed his look.

The swarm was hungry, yes, but they retained enough of their minds to want revenge. Vegeta hovered in the middle of the black cloud, barely visible as he hung in the air, surrounded not by a shield of ki but by wisps that swirled around him like electrons of an atom so fast that they blurred. Having their hated enemy so close and so flimsily defended brought the Budoven closer and closer, snapping and frustrated as the ki burned them down one at a time.

Goku's heart skipped-the Budoven drove themselves into a shark-like frenzy, testing the weakest points of Vegeta's shield. If any of them got inside... Vegeta had curled up with his head slightly bowed and his eyes shut tight. All of his concentration went into maintaining the four or five needle thin spots of ki whirring around him. If a budoven got inside, he'd have to kill it, his concentration would break and the shield would collapse-with all the Budoven crowded around him. The creatures pressed in until they could no longer see him. And yet, the distraction was exaclty what they needed.

"Perfect!" Gohan yelled as the last stragglers moved away from them and focused on Vegeta. "Dad-"

"Way ahead of you," Goku said.

Together they pulled their hands to their sides, drawing together a double kamehameha attack. They had to aim to either side of Vegeta, shifting their hands a few inches as they lined up their shots.

"Be careful not to hit him," Goku said just before letting go. "He's dead exhausted, even though he won't admit it."

"Got it," Gohan nodded, and then they screamed their attack.

Gold light tore through the Budoven, disintegrating most of the swarm instantly. Some tumbled out of the sky in pieces, and the stench of burned shells filled hte air until the breeze took it away. In the clear, Vegeta continued to hover safe within his ki. He didn't seem to notice that they were safe again, and his eyes were closed amidst the handful of Budoven left bumbling in confused circles that Piccolo moved to sweep up.

As Gohan joined Piccolo's side, Goku flew close to Vegeta, waiting for him to lower his ki and increasingly concerned when it stayed swirling around him.

"Vegeta?" he asked, glancing around to make sure they were alone. "Can you hear me? They're gone now."

Nothing.

"Vegeta?"

Worried now, Goku grit his teeth and reached through the ki, wincing as it grazed him. It wasn't strong enough to injure him, though it stung as it swept over his skin. He grasped Vegeta's shoulders and shook him once. As if in a daze, Vegeta blinked and met his looked, his eyes empty and emotionless.

"They're dead," Goku said helpfully. "Gohan and Piccolo are cleaning up the last ones. We did it-"

Of all the reactions he expected, a battle cry and a blast in his face was not one of them. It stung only a little more than the shield still spinning around Vegeta, but it was followed by a flurry of ki bolts that drove him backwards more out of surprise than anything else. He raised his arms in an X block and deflected the bolts up to the sky.

He sensed Gohan and Piccolo coming towards them, but he waved them off with a shake of his head. He didn't want this fight to escalate, and he was confident that he could win any fight against Vegeta. His brow furrowed. Especially when Vegeta wasn't powering up at all.

In fact, he seemed limited to the most basic ki blasts, strong in themselves but nothing Goku couldn't shrug off. What worried him was the furious look of Vegeta's eyes, the rage and pride coupled together that he hadn't seen in decades. Taken with Vegeta's suddenly lower strength, Goku suspected that the other Saiyan wasn't glowing gold not because he was exhausted, but because he didn't remember that he could. At the edge of his senses, Vegeta's emotions tumbled in a blind panic, driving towards Goku in sheer desperation and clinging to him like a lifeline in a windstorm.

"I was right," he said, deflecting another handful of bolts, then another as his easy block fueled Vegeta's panic. "This was too much, even for you."

The others were coming-Krillin, Tien, Gohan and the rest. Goku was sure they'd felt Vegeta's attacks and thought there were still Budoven around. He steeled himself. If they got here while Vegeta was still panicking, he wasn't sure what would happen.

Certain that this would make things worse before making it better, he rushed up on Vegeta and put his arms around him, crushing him close. The prince screamed, his voice muffled in Goku's clothes, and he thrashed, kick, flailed and bit-Goku winced at the fangs digging into his arm and remembered that Vegeta didn't mind fighting dirty.

He held him like stone, letting Vegeta wear himself out and opening himself to the ongoing shriek in his head. At least neither of them could turn golden. Goku didn't think he could fight, not with the wail in Vegeta's thoughts. Jumbled, confusing the present for the past, the empty sky suddenly filled with a legion of monstrous insects, the skittery hum of their wings drowning out sound and making his teeth vibrate. Sharp teeth raked his skin, biting away mouthfuls, and the blood became a feeding frenzy as the Budoven tried to dive close. The smell of charred carapaces and blood filled the air.

Goku squeezed his eyes shut. No. They were not on an other planet. They were on Earth. They were safe. The only thing flying close were their allies, and he willed Vegeta to understand.

Long minutes passed. As Vegeta slowly realized that nothing was biting him to shreds, that he wasn't being eaten alive, he stopped hyperventilating and breathed in deep shuddering gasps. He relaxed, and Goku felt the strange sensation of a tail wrapping around his waist. A moment went by before he understood that Vegeta's phantom pain from his severed tail had bled into Goku's mind.

Finally the fear faded away. Vegeta slipped against him and Goku tightened his hold around his waist, holding him so he didn't drop out of the sky.

"You okay?" he asked.

Vegeta nodded vaguely, glancing at the clouds to make sure nothing was hiding or flying just out of sight. Noticing that he was being held, he drew up enough reserves to keep himself aloft so that Goku could relax his bruising grip.

"Sorry," he murmured.

"Are you sure?" Goku asked. "I've never seen you react like that."

"I'm fine," Vegeta said in his usual harsh voice, but he didn't pull away and he didn't glare. "Tired. Just tired."

"Right," Goku said, letting his disbelief color his voice, but he didn't press. The fight was over and-

"Dad..."

Already knowing what he would see, Goku looked around himself. Gohan and Piccolo hovered nearby in concern, and if it had just been them, it would have been fine. They knew about each other's trysts, after all. But it seemed that every other fighter had had gathered around, ready to finish off a triumphant battle. And instead they found their planet's champion utterly tarnished. There was no mistaking the way he held Vegeta or the way the prince clung to him.

Krillin was the first to speak, tentatively asking if he was all right, as if he wasn't seeing what he thought he was seeing. Goku sighed and shook his head. He didn't want to spend time on this, not when Vegeta was spent and he desperately wanted to know that his other son was fine.

"I'm sorry, Krillin," Goku said. "But I'll have to explain it later. Right now I've got to get us both home."

He touched his fingertips to his forehead, concentrating for a moment and ignoring the rushed questions, and vanished, reappearing at the medical wing of the Capsule Corps compound. Mainly for experimental use, it still had all the accoutrements of a real hospital with the added bonus of taking baseline Saiyan physiology into account. Trunks was already there with Goten up on one of the beds, ignoring his complaining and making him lay down when Goten tried to sit up.

"I'm fine," Goten said, watching him fiddle with the controls of various monitors. "Why'd you give me a senzu if you didn't think it would do anything?"

"Just shut up and lie still," Trunks snapped. "I wanna make sure."

When Vegeta heard their voices, his head snapped up and he smiled in relief to see the both. Trunks smiled back, assured that he would at least be all right if he wasn't already.

"Is he okay?" Trunks asked, pushing Goten back on the bed with one hand splayed on his chest.

"I'm fine," Vegeta growled, trying to slip away and finding Goku's hand firmly around the back of his neck. "Kakarrot..."

"Oh, you've got a bad case of Gotenitis," Trunks said, and glared at Goten for good measure.

"I'm really not hurt anymore," Goten said even though he knew Trunks wasn't listening.

"Were you guys bit bad?" Trunks asked Goku.

"Not really," Goku said. "I was hoping you had a spare senzu bean or two. We're both pretty run down."

"Sure," Trunks said. "Goten...stay."

Narrowing his eyes, Goten turned his head and refused to look at him. "Woof."

He went to the desk in the back of the room and opened one of the drawers, pulling out a small jar with a handful of senzu. He flipped two beans to Goku, who caught them and handed one off while swallowing his. Vegeta took his and ate it, leaning against Goten's bed to catch his breath. He eyed the young half-Saiyan, noting that despite his grumblings, Goten remained in bed.

"You were bitten badly," he said, motioning at the blood on the mattress and paper covering.

"Yeah," Goten said grudgingly. "I can't believe I passed out. I feel like such a wimp."

"Don't," Vegeta said. "Even Freiza was reluctant to fight a whole swarm. You've faced something most people don't see and live to tell about."

Goten shivered. "It just felt so frustrating. I couldn't barely hit them and they were everywhere. It was like being surrounded by sharks."

"It was a feeding frenzy," Trunks said and nodded. "And we were the main course."

"That was a stroke of genius," Goku said, "leading them up into the atmosphere like that."

"That wasn't genius," Trunks admitted. "It was luck. I wasn't even thinking about freezing them. I just wanted to get Goten out of there and the only safe way was up."

"Not luck," Vegeta corrected him. "Training. You did it without thinking because your fighting style is ingrained in you now."

Trunks smiled at the rare praise. It was matter of fact and unadorned, but Vegeta never praised him unless he truly meant it. Each time he did so was carefully preserved in Trunks' memory.

"Did you wanna do a quick check up?" he offered. "Just to make sure you're okay? The senzu doesn't really treat mental fatigue that well, and that was a super long fight."

"Not as long as some," Vegeta said, shaking his head. "We're all right."

Vegeta started out of the medical wing, waving away Goku's hand, but he held one hand over his eyes to shield them from the light and he swayed slightly on his feet. Goku shared a long suffering look with Trunks and went after him, putting an arm around his shoulders to hold him steady.

"Idiot," Vegeta murmured. "Let go. Do you want someone to see?"

"Kind of late for that," Goku said.

Halting in the middle of the corridor, Vegeta looked up at him with wide eyes.

"What?"

"You don't remember?" Goku half smiled. "You zoned out of it after we killed the Budoven around you, and when I tried to snap you out of it, you attacked me."

"I...did?" Vegeta touched the spot between his eyes as if he had a headache. "I don't remember that. I thought..."

"I finally got you settled, but by then almost everyone else was there and the way I was holding you was kind of obvious." Goku tilted his head and let that subject drop. "Sure you don't wanna go back inside? I'm kinda worried you might start hallucinating again."

"No," Vegeta said but without any heat in his voice. "I've had flashbacks before, just never that strong."

"What was it?"

"I...," Vegeta paused and glanced down the hall. The hour was late, or early, but the alien threat had most of the workers wide awake and moving around the compound. "Not here. I don't want anyone to hear."

"Sure."

Thinking the other Saiyan would take him upstairs to his room, Goku was surprised when Vegeta turned and went outside into the garden, watching the sky quietly. Goku didn't mention that someone might fly by and notice them. He came up behind Vegeta and stood close, letting Vegeta lean back and rest his head on Goku's shoulder.

Gray light filtered across the sky as the sun sat just below the horizon, swallowing the stars. Vegeta was grateful for that at least. He'd never had the chance to ask Nappa if they could see Saiya from Earth. He doubted it, but sometimes the uncertainty twisted in him.

"So what happened?" Goku asked. "What did you flash back to?"

"The same thing that happened to Goten," Vegeta said. "We were fighting over a planet we'd just purged, and when we'd killed enough of them, they suddenly molted and charged at me."

"You panicked?" Goku asked.

"I was fourteen," Vegeta said defensively. "I'd never fought anything like that before. I curled up defensively like that and waited for them to burn up when they hit my ki. Nappa and Radditz had to..." He sighed in irritation with himself. "They had to coax me out."

The one thing Vegeta never had to worry about when confessing to Kakarrot, especially about serious and embarrassing things he'd rather not think about, was that Kakarrot didn't laugh. He didn't try to joke or make Vegeta feel better except to put his hands on his shoulders and hold him.

"You're tired," Goku said. "Sleep?"

Vegeta shook his head. He already had plenty of nightmares. He wasn't about to sleep until the memories weren't so raw.

"Stay with me," he said.

It was a request camouflaged as an order. He half expected Goku to apologize and excuse himself to try to explain this relationship with his friends. It made sense. He was all right now and didn't need babysitting. Goku had to talk to his friends and-

"Okay."

Vegeta was so surprised he forgot to mask it. "Really?"

"Sure," Goku grinned. "You need me."

Goku let his hands drop to circle Vegeta's waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. He nuzzled the other Saiyan's cheek, pleased that Vegeta fidgeted but didn't push him off. The morning breeze was uncomfortably cool, and Goku's warm breath made him shiver.

You need me. Vegeta frowned. The idea rankled badly. If he'd had his tail, it would have puffed in irritation. Needing someone made him vulnerable, weak. Soft. And Kakarrot was such a moron, a soft-hearted fool-it would be the height of stupidity to trust him.

Vegeta closed his eyes and sighed. Kakarrot's stupidity was rubbing off on him.

end


End file.
